Dry sliding wear behavior of AA6061/ZrB2 in-situ composite
(1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karunya University, Coimbatore−641 114, Tamil Nadu, India;
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Technology,
Coimbatore−641 014, Tamil Nadu, India)
2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Technology,
Coimbatore−641 014, Tamil Nadu, India)
Abstract: The dry sliding wear behavior of AA6061/ZrB2 in-situ composite prepared by the reaction of inorganic salts K2ZrF6 and KBF4 with molten aluminum was investigated. An attempt was made to develop a mathematical model to predict the wear rate of AA6061/(0−10%) ZrB2 in-situ composites. Four-factor, five-level central composite rotatable design was used to minimize the number of experiments. The factors considered are sliding velocity, sliding distance, normal load and mass fraction of ZrB2 particles. The effect of these factors on the wear rate of the fabricated composite was analyzed and the predicted trends were discussed by observing the wear surface morphologies. The in-situ formed ZrB2 particles enhance the wear performance of the composite. The wear rate of the composite bears a proportional relationship with the sliding velocity, sliding distance and normal load.
Key words: aluminum matrix composites; ZrB2; dry sliding wear; mathematical model